Placental contractions in healthy and compromised placentas

Motivation: Placental contractions will have an impact on the blood flow through the placenta and therefore the health of the fetus. However they have not been fully characterised and have never been studied in compromised pregnancies. Goal(s): Characterise contractions in healthy placentas and compare to compromised pregnancies. Approach: Dynamic respiratory triggered EPI for 10-30 minutes to measure changes in placental shape and BOLD signal. Results: All groups displayed placental contractions and differences in the depth and length of contractions was observed in compromised pregnancies. Impact: A third of stillbirths are caused by placental complications. Placental contractions are a newly identified physiological phenomenon and so it is important to understand any role they may play in compromised pregnancies.